Top 50 Albums Of 2020 (Part 1: 50-26)

 

Greetings, my fellow machines. DalekTurret32 here, and we will finally be looking at my Top 50 favourite albums of 2020.

Due to the pandemic, many of us looked to more music than usual to cope with our feelings in today's world. I may be included in this too, as I have listened to 128 new albums in 2020 (four of them being mixtapes). And while the stuff overall wasn't as great as the highs of 2019, there were more contenders for this list (about 94 of them being at least a solid 8/10).

My main rule for the albums list is that it will focus on studio albums and the 'one lead artist per entry' rule, but I will be including a new rule:

• For an album to be eligible for this list, the artist must be a verified artist on Spotify with at least 300-400 monthly listeners.

Honourable mentions include:

• Miss Anthropocene by Grimes
• Song Machine, Season One: Strange Timez by Gorillaz
• 2017-2019 by Against All Logic
• Home by Romare
• Deep Down Happy by Sports Team
• Moral Panic by Nothing But Thieves
• Re-Animator by Everything Everything
• Sixteen Oceans by Four Tet
• Magic Oneohtrix Point Never by Oneohtrix Point Never
• Alfredo by Freddie Gibbs and The Alchemist
• Billy Nomates by Billy Nomates

Now, onto the list! Let's get through this part as quickly as possible!

#50. Love, Death & Dancing by Jack Garratt

I may not see myself returning to the singles off this album as much as I did with Phase, but Love Death And Dancing shows signs of Garratt’s music becoming more colourful and versatile.

Fave Tracks: “Mara”; “Circles”; “Doctor Please”

#49. The Universal Want by Doves

Here’s a comeback that I wasn’t expecting. What was also unexpected was that I ended up liking this more than The Last Broadcast.

Fave Tracks: “Prisoners”; “Mother Silverlake”; “Cathedrals Of The Mind”

#48. Limbo by Amine

A fun little upbeat hip hop album, but with some serious themes tackled such as racism, parenthood and dealing with death. Rumour has it that once you play “Woodlawn”, you can’t stop listening to it.

Fave Tracks: “Roots”; “Fetus”; “Becky”

#47. Off Off On by This Is The Kit

A nice, calm sound with acoustic guitars and brass instruments blended together. The lyrics contain a positive outlook in life, as well as Kate Stables encouraging the listener to ‘keep going’ at the end of the album. It’s an LP that we needed in the age of the pandemic.

Fave Tracks: “No Such Thing”; “Carry Us Please”; “This Is What You Did”

#46. Rejoice by Tony Allen and Hugh Masekela

We lost a handful of musicians this year, one of them being legendary afrobeat artist Tony Allen. This collaborative project with the late jazz musician Hugh Masekela was in development for about a decade, and the result project proves that the long wait was worth it. A nice fusion of Afrobeat and jazz that serves as a swansong to both these artists’ discographies.

Fave Tracks: “Never (Lagos Never Gonna Be The Same)”; “Slow Bones”; “Obama Shuffle Strut Blues”

#45. I Grow Tired But Dare Not Fall Asleep by Ghostpoet

Good moody stuff as usual, with poetic lyrics that fit the artist’s name and well-utilized arrangements of synths and bass guitars.

Fave Tracks: “I Grow Tired But Dare Not Fall Asleep”; “Rats In A Sack”; “Black Dog Got Silver Eyes”

#44. Imploding The Mirage by The Killers

The Killers have shown traces of Heartland rock in their works throughout the 2010’s, but here, they expand upon these elements and embrace the anthemic side.

Fave Tracks: “Caution”; “My Own Soul’s Warning”; “Imploding The Mirage”

#43. Chromatica by Lady Gaga

After her ventures into country with Joanne and Bradley Cooper’s 2018 remake of romantic drama A Star Is Born, Gaga returns to the upbeat pop that put her on the map, and even adds some touches of electronic music that was popular before she kicked off her career with the phenomenal smash hit Just Dance. If the clubs reopen and there is a Chromatica listening party in one near to me, count me in!

Fave Tracks: “Rain On Me”; “Replay”; “Sour Candy”

#42. Fetch The Bolt Cutters by Fiona Apple

The album that many music critics collectively called the best album of 2020. While it isn’t in my Top 10, I agree with them on this being an excellent album. I put this off for a couple months because either I may overhype it or I may not like it as much as I should. And neither really happened after eventually giving this a listen.

I really like the unique percussion styles Fiona Apple utilizes throughout this LP, as well as the vocal harmonies that pop up every now and then. The lyrical themes focus on feminism, with Apple standing up for herself on “Under The Table” and tackling sexual assault on “For Her”. She also uses a relay race as a metaphor for the concept of evil and how it passes on to others on the tribal “Relay”.

Fave Tracks: “Relay”; “Shameika”; “Under The Table”

#41. It Is What It Is by Thundercat

I liked this album, but I felt like it was a step down from the marvellous Drunk. Then I went back to most of the cuts in the summer, and they clicked with me more than they did on my initial listen. Thundercat comes through with his funky charm, and even shows some of the quirkiness that made Drunk such an enjoyable listen.

Fave Tracks: “How Sway”; “It Is What It Is”; “Dragonball Durag”

#40. What Kinda Music by Tom Misch and Yussef Dayes

A singer-songwriter mainly known for his guitar driven material teams up with a jazz artist to create an album that’s not only virtuosic in its instrumentation and performance, but also beautiful in its atmosphere.

Fave Tracks: “Last 100”; “Festival”; “I Did It For You”

#39. On Sunset by Paul Weller

It has the usual blend of gospel, blues and rock that Paul Weller has been doing throughout his solo career, but contains elements of other styles of music too, such as jazz. The mindful lyrics give this album a further boost.

Fave Tracks: “More”; “Mirror Ball”; “On Sunset”

I don’t know if this next one is an EP or LP. It was listed as an EP on AlbumOfTheYear back when I listened to it, but now they list it as an LP. The ‘[artist] discography’ page on Wikipedia says it’s an EP, but the project’s own page says it’s an LP. If it is an EP, then it would have ended up at #3 on my Top 10 EP’s list.

#38. UNLOCKED by Denzel Curry and Kenny Beats

A lot of the cuts from this are relatively short, but Denzel and Kenny make the most of their short runtimes, Kenny with his beats and Denzel with his curry. Sorry, I meant Denzel with his skills, bars and flows. There’s also the occasional pitch shifted vocal that comes in at the right places.

I recommend you check out the short animated film that was released on YouTube to tie in with the project. Blending many animation styles together, from 1960’s Hanna-Barbera to Robot Chicken-esque claymation to the 1930’s cartoons that Bendy And The Ink Machine and Cuphead were influenced by.

Fave Tracks: "So.Incredible.pkg"; "Take_it_Back_v2"; "'Cosmic' .m4a"

#37. Seeking Thrills by Georgia

Vibrant synthpop that’s nicely produced. Georgia made it onto both of my previous Top Songs Of The Year countdowns (Started Out in 2018 and Never Let You Go in 2019). She may not make it to this year’s, but this album was worth waiting a year for.

Fave Tracks: “Never Let You Go”; “The Thrill”; “About Work The Dancefloor”

#36. Notes On A Conditional Form by The 1975

An album starts off with a quick burst of rage before allowing Matt Healy to reveal more emotional layers of himself. The band goes more experimental with other styles such as UK garage, 80s pop and indie folk.

Fave Tracks: “Yeah I Know”; “Nothing Revealed / Everything Denied”; “Shiny Collarbone”

#35. Kitchen Sink by Nadine Shah

The lyrical themes mainly focus on Shah’s struggles with the standards of a high class society and how it has affected other people below them, particularly women of the 20th century. It’s like Fetch The Bolt Cutters if it was reimagined by PJ Harvey.

Fave Tracks: “Walk”; “Buckfast”; “Kitchen Sink”

#34. Death Of The Party by The Magic Gang

A day in the life of a band’s vocalist in a slightly similar manner to Arctic Monkeys’ Whatever People Say I Am, but with more of a positive outlook in life than that album. It has The Magic Gang’s usual brand of electric guitars from their previous album, but here, they add more instruments to the mix, such as those of the brass family.

Fave Tracks: “Take Back The Track”; “Think” “Gonna Bounce Back”

#33. 3.15.20 by Childish Gambino

This is an album where you have to listen to it in full in order to truly experience it. It’s 57 minutes and 39 seconds of smoothly crafted music ranging from R&B to synthpop. Weird how two of the songs on there are given non-numerical song titles yet the two year old song that comes in later isn’t.

Fave Tracks: "42:26"; "47:48"; "53:49"

#32. ENERGY by Disclosure

This is the first time an artist that has topped my EP list appears on my albums countdown at the same time. There’s some elements of world music from that EP a few months prior, but Disclosure broaden their area of deep house by diving into the deep house of the 1980’s on “Lavender” and “C’est ne pas”.

Fave Tracks: “Douha (Mali Mali)”; “My High”; “Lavender”

#31. Heaven To A Tortured Mind by Yves Tumor

Yves Tumor goes ambitious with their experimentation as they combine psychedelic rock and industrial electronic music together. They even make a drug-fuelled version of a typical 70’s R&B/soul song in “Hasdallen Lights”.

Fave Tracks: “Kerosene!”; “Strawberry Privilege”; “Dream Palette”

#30. Dark Matter by Moses Boyd

A wonderfully composed jazz fusion album with hard hitting guest verses along with contributions from musicians who have worked with exciting jazz ensembles Ezra Collective, Sons Of Kemet and SEED Ensemble.

Fave Tracks: “2 Far Gone”; “Y.O.Y.O”; “Dancing In The Dark”

#29. Inner Song by Kelly Lee Owens

Not the most amazing atmosphere to come from an electronic album this year (we’ll get to that in the next part), but still succeeds in generating a calm, ambient vibe. From the vibrant chamber synths of “Re-Wild” to the poetic verse from legendary producer John Cale on “Corner Of My Sky”. Also, isn’t it a coincidence that Kelly Lee Owens’ cover of Arpeggi came shortly after Lianne La Havas’ cover of Weird Fishes (both originally by Radiohead, and are both part of the same track)

Fave Tracks: “Jeanette”; “Corner Of My Sky”; “Wake-Up”

#28. Ultra Mono by IDLES

A raw, energetic album that releases its rage through the speakers (like with IDLES’ other albums) is what we needed in 2020. Not just that, but the many political and social issues of both past and present were well addressed throughout this LP.

Fave Tracks: “Reigns”; “Model Village”; “Carcinogenic”

#27. Shaytoon by Sepehr

A special discovery thanks to hearing “Rooz-E Marg (Outro)” on 6Music and being amazed by it. I love the use of water instruments throughout this album. They compliment the synths in order to create this eerie sound. Top it all off with elements of ambient and breakbeat, and you've got yourself another recommendable electronic album.

Fave Tracks: “Hallucination Express”; “Coup D’etat”; “Rooz-E Marg (Outro)”

#26. Rough And Rowdy Ways by Bob Dylan

Astonishing how Dylan has been making music for nearly six decades. The album sounds as organic as his 60’s material, but also adds some lounge music to go with his signature styles of blues and folk.

Fave Tracks: “Key West (Philosopher Pirate)”; “Crossing The Rubicon”; “Murder Most Foul”

And that's it for now! Part Two with numbers 25-1 will come in a few days , and this time we'll have album cover arts displayed.